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HAKRIET HOSMEE. 297
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
-* E* Ik The Via Fontanella At Rome,—A S...
_processes , says , " that the clay model may be called creation , the plaster cast death , and the marble resurrection . " Certain it is that
finishing the clay model stroke and , are the more marble closel statue y allied , when , more each nearl has y identical received one the
with the other , than either is with the cast . So alive are sculptors to the fact of the injury done to their works by being seen in plaster
casts , that they bestow great pains in working them over by hand to restore something of the fineness and sharpness which the
process of modelling has destroyed . So impressed with this is Powers , the American sculptor , that with the ingenuity and inventive skill
of his country , he has succeeded in making a plaster , hard almost as marble , and which bears with equal impunity the file 9 chisel and
polisher . There are in Home , workmen devoted to the production of certain
portions of the figure , draped or undraped ; for instance , one man is _distinguished for his skill in working the hair , and confines himself
exclusively to this speciality , while another is famous for his method of rendering the quality of flesh , and a third is unequalled in drapery .
Very rarely does it happen that the artist is , lucky enough to find all these qualities combined in one man , but it does occasionally happen ,
and Mr . Gibson is himself fortunate in the possession of a workman whose skill and manipulative power , in all departments , are of the
very highest order . A Roman by birth , the handsome and highly organised Camillo , with his slight figure , and delicate , almost
effeminate hands , is a master of the mallet and chisel , and from the head to the foot , renders and interprets his model with artistic power and
feeling . The man loves his work , and the work repays the love , as when does it not , from the sublime labors of genius to the humblest
vocation of street or alley . . To return from our digression ; leaving the work-room , we cross
one side of the small garden , and by just such another rough door as the two we have already passed through in the first studio , we
enter another capacious , barn-like apartment , the centre of which is occupied by the colored Venus , so dear to Mr . Gibson ' s heart that
, though executed to order , year after year passes on , and he cannot make up his mind to part with it . Ranged round the walls of this
capacious studio , are casts of the Hunter , one of the earliest and most vigorous of Mr . Gibson ' s works , of the Queen , of the colossal group
in the House of Lords , and sundry others . Having inspected these at our leisure , and viewed the Venus from the most approved points ,
probably under the eye of the master , who never tires of expatiatingon the great knowledge of the ancients in coloring their statues , a
curtain across the left hand corner of the studio is lifted , and the attendant enquires if "la signorina" will receive visitors . The
permission given , we ascend a steep flight of stairs , and find ourselves in a small upper studio , face to face with a compact little
figure , five feet two in height , in cap and blouse , whose short , sunny
/ _Jbrown curls , broad brow , frank and resolute expression , of caun-
Hakriet Hosmee. 297
HAKRIET HOSMEE . 297
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1858, page 297, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071858/page/9/
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